A few weeks ago in July the ‘Welshest Awards in the World’ were held in the name of celebrating the Welsh language in the workplace in north and west Wales. The awards are part of the Bwrlwm Arfor work stream, a part of the wider ARFOR scheme that promotes and creates publicity about the programme. As the broader programme is one that looks specifically at the links between the economy and the language, it was an obvious step to hold an awards ceremony to celebrate the businesses and individuals that work through the medium of Welsh. The work stream is run by Lafan, a communications company, and they have been hard at work organising the awards over the past months.
The awards presented businesses, institutions and individuals to nominate themselves or others to receive on of seven awards, namely the Welshest Brand, Welshest Social Media, Welshest Space, Welshest Business, Welshest Individual and Welshest Product. The nominees were announced, and a public vote was opened in order to decide the winners. On 17 July an awards ceremony was held in Aberystwyth order to celebrate the achievements of the winners.
This is a list of those that came out on top:
- Welshest Brand in the World: Sglods Llanon
- Welshes Social Media in the World: Pawen Lawn Dog Park
- Welshest Staff in the World – Caffi Maes Carnarfon
- Welshest Space in the World: Garth Newydd
- Welshest Business in the World: Caffi Maes Caernarfon
- Welshest Individual in the World: Geraint Edwards, Pedair Cainc
- Welshest Product in the World: Blocs by Ffion Wyn Evans from Enfys o Emosiynau
For many of the winners the awards were an opportunity to shed light on the hard work and commitment to the Welsh language shown at work in their businesses.
Garth Newydd, a business based in Lampeter, were the winners of the Welshest Space in the World. Garth Newydd is a hotel that also serves as a language school that gives Welsh learners the opportunity to come together to learn through socialising. They provide a welcoming and supportive space for those that want to improve their confidence when speaking the language.
Nia Llywelyn, who has been running courses at garth Newydd, said:
‘Our stays can be from a night to a week and it’s an opportunity for people to immerse themselves in the Welsh language.
There are seven bedrooms with room for a total of 10 people and during their stay they prepare food and eat together, go out together and visit shops with Welsh speaking staff.
I could spend money on organising events but what our guests prefer is the opportunity to meet, speak to and get to know native Welsh speakers.
What we are doing is helping people on the journey to becoming confident Welsh speakers.
These days there is a lot of learning that goes on from in front of a screen but it’s much nicer for people to socialise together and to encourage them to speak I ask them to bring items with them.
Last week we had a lady from Texas, people from Canada and Australia and last month someone from Sweden who had never spoken to anyone in Welsh face-to-face and he coped brilliantly.
We get all kinds of people. We’ve had a lady from Malta who spoke nine languages and wanted to learn Welsh.’
For more information about Bwrlwm ARFOR’s work as well as stories from other winners, follow @bwrlwmarfor on Twitter/X and Instagram.
